EMDR

Last night as I was sleeping
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.

And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.Antonio Machado

Trauma is anything that happens to us that overwhelms us so much it changes our world view, how we see ourselves, and how we see others. In 1987, Viet Nam vets, still reliving their war experience even though the war was long over, were used in an experiment using EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). After several sessions with EMDR, many of these vets found they could finally put the war to rest, develop trusting relationships again, and return to the world in a functioning way.

EMDR uses bilateral stimulation* to help facilitate a conversation between the left hemisphere of the brain (logic) and the right (memory and emotion) in order to resolve what feels stuck or disturbing. Many have described this experience like being a spectator to the trauma rather than an overwhelmed participant. They are often able to see the bigger picture of what happened, to realize that the traumatic experience is over, and to resolve any negative beliefs that they have associated with that event. It is a valuable tool that can help accelerate the healing process for traumatic events in a person’s life.

*Bilateral stimulation is anything that activates one side of the body/brain with the other, i.e, the eyes moving back and forth like what happens during REM sleep. This can also be achieved by using a Thera-tapper, a device that alternately vibrates your right and left hands.